See, this is why I can't neglect my blog. Too much goes on during each day for me to remember it all three days later when I get to an internet terminal again. But I'll do my best...
The bungeeing/kiwi viewing/geyser eruption took place in Rotorua, which is on the north island about halfway between Auckland and Wellington. From there V and I drove to the Waitomo Caves, which was just a few hour stop to wander through a cave with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. That was followed by a rather amazing boat ride through the "Glowworm Cave" which, yes, is filled with glowworms. You take a very quiet ride through the cave in complete darkness, and the ceiling is absolutely filled with tiny glowworms. It's like a galaxy up there.
We then drove to the Tongariro National Park, to a town called Whakapapa. If I haven't mentioned it already, everything in NZ is named either something unpronounceably Maori or stuffily British. Like a place called Bleinham or Cheltingham can be located right next to a town called Waikato, Waitomo or Wangarini. It's very confusing.
As it turned out, Whakapapa is a ski resort, for which we were ill prepared. It's springtime here, and there was actually still snow on the mountain, though too high up for us to handle. We had a kind of gross dinner in what turned out to be our "regular" cafe. I say regular only because it was basically one of three places in town to eat, and the only one that was open when we wanted to eat. The next day, we managed go on a two hour hike in the rain. A lot of rain. Very wet rain. We felt virtuous though, and were very happy to sit on our butts for several hours after that in the cafe.
It also turned out that that hotel that we were not staying in was the nice one, with a big comfy lobby and fireplaces and all, so I tried to convince V that we should sit in one spot the rest of the night. She wisely vetoed that idea, so instead we went on the hunt for the world's biggest carrot. Oh yes. There was a nearby town called Ohakune that boasts a structure of a big carrot. It's kind of their thing. I'll post a picture when I can.
The rest of the night was more than pleasant, involved sneaked-in French fries from aforementioned cafe, two bottles of wine (one of which tasted exactly like grapefruit), Scrabbled, rich Kiwis and a lonely Taiwanese man.
The next day we headed back to Wellington. It was a drive that should have taken 4 hours, but somehow between the rain, a slightly scenic route and many, many dangerous mountain roads (avalanches included), it took us 7.5 hours. We basically got home in time to order pizza with hubby, do laundry and repack for the South Island.
But then I learned the lesson about being careful what you wish for. I had been hoping to spend more time in Wellington before we had to take the ferry to the South Island. Well, we weren't aware that we were supposed to arrive 45 minutes before our 8:25 a.m. ferry, so when we got there at 8:15 looking expectantly at the woman at the ticket counter, we were a little shocked to find out that the boat was closed. I guess it's the New Yorker in us, but what the hell? So we sort of hitchhiked back to the apartment- it was only sort of because we were standing in the middle of an industrial ferry area, in the ubiquitous rain, with no taxis nearby, and a kindly old man took pity on us.
We had tickets for the 2 p.m. ferry, and I was looking forward to a little blogging. Alas, there was a massive power outage. So we slept. And it was cold. Then we had lunch with hubby. Then we got on the boat. And it was cold. And we got to Picton, and it was cold and rainy. And we drove, through more mountainous roads sans avalanches. And finally, finally arrived in Nelson, where we are today.
Okay, we're actually going to cheat on our travel mode and go see a movie in a few minutes. Hey, it's a local thing to do and we're seeing An Inconvenient Truth, so we're being good Americans. I'll post pictures this weekend, and next up is the tale of how V and I became master Maori bone carvers. I have a pendant to prove it.
The bungeeing/kiwi viewing/geyser eruption took place in Rotorua, which is on the north island about halfway between Auckland and Wellington. From there V and I drove to the Waitomo Caves, which was just a few hour stop to wander through a cave with lots of stalactites and stalagmites. That was followed by a rather amazing boat ride through the "Glowworm Cave" which, yes, is filled with glowworms. You take a very quiet ride through the cave in complete darkness, and the ceiling is absolutely filled with tiny glowworms. It's like a galaxy up there.
We then drove to the Tongariro National Park, to a town called Whakapapa. If I haven't mentioned it already, everything in NZ is named either something unpronounceably Maori or stuffily British. Like a place called Bleinham or Cheltingham can be located right next to a town called Waikato, Waitomo or Wangarini. It's very confusing.
As it turned out, Whakapapa is a ski resort, for which we were ill prepared. It's springtime here, and there was actually still snow on the mountain, though too high up for us to handle. We had a kind of gross dinner in what turned out to be our "regular" cafe. I say regular only because it was basically one of three places in town to eat, and the only one that was open when we wanted to eat. The next day, we managed go on a two hour hike in the rain. A lot of rain. Very wet rain. We felt virtuous though, and were very happy to sit on our butts for several hours after that in the cafe.
It also turned out that that hotel that we were not staying in was the nice one, with a big comfy lobby and fireplaces and all, so I tried to convince V that we should sit in one spot the rest of the night. She wisely vetoed that idea, so instead we went on the hunt for the world's biggest carrot. Oh yes. There was a nearby town called Ohakune that boasts a structure of a big carrot. It's kind of their thing. I'll post a picture when I can.
The rest of the night was more than pleasant, involved sneaked-in French fries from aforementioned cafe, two bottles of wine (one of which tasted exactly like grapefruit), Scrabbled, rich Kiwis and a lonely Taiwanese man.
The next day we headed back to Wellington. It was a drive that should have taken 4 hours, but somehow between the rain, a slightly scenic route and many, many dangerous mountain roads (avalanches included), it took us 7.5 hours. We basically got home in time to order pizza with hubby, do laundry and repack for the South Island.
But then I learned the lesson about being careful what you wish for. I had been hoping to spend more time in Wellington before we had to take the ferry to the South Island. Well, we weren't aware that we were supposed to arrive 45 minutes before our 8:25 a.m. ferry, so when we got there at 8:15 looking expectantly at the woman at the ticket counter, we were a little shocked to find out that the boat was closed. I guess it's the New Yorker in us, but what the hell? So we sort of hitchhiked back to the apartment- it was only sort of because we were standing in the middle of an industrial ferry area, in the ubiquitous rain, with no taxis nearby, and a kindly old man took pity on us.
We had tickets for the 2 p.m. ferry, and I was looking forward to a little blogging. Alas, there was a massive power outage. So we slept. And it was cold. Then we had lunch with hubby. Then we got on the boat. And it was cold. And we got to Picton, and it was cold and rainy. And we drove, through more mountainous roads sans avalanches. And finally, finally arrived in Nelson, where we are today.
Okay, we're actually going to cheat on our travel mode and go see a movie in a few minutes. Hey, it's a local thing to do and we're seeing An Inconvenient Truth, so we're being good Americans. I'll post pictures this weekend, and next up is the tale of how V and I became master Maori bone carvers. I have a pendant to prove it.
posted by sarika @ 10:05 PM
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